This issue of the CASJE Research Digest focuses on the term “Zionism”—a concept that has become increasingly prominent in public discourse across media, politics, and campus life, particularly in the wake of the October 7, 2023 attacks and the subsequent war in Gaza.
We chose to center this issue on Zionism not to adjudicate its meaning (or that of its counterpart, “anti-Zionism”), but to better understand how the term is actually used and understood by different publics. The research presented in this issue highlights a striking disconnect: while “Zionism” is widely invoked, most Americans (Jewish and non-Jewish) lack a shared understanding of what it means, and interpretations of its meaning can vary significantly.
For this reason, this issue shifts attention away from labels and toward underlying attitudes toward Israel among American Jews, exploring how they relate to Israel in ways that are often more complex and nuanced than public discourse suggests.
Access the report on CASJE’s website here.
More content from this blog
- Israel’s Greatest Threat Isn’t Iran or Hamas, but Its Own Hubris, by Orly Noy – 15 June 2025
- Palestine: Lessons From History, by Martin Thomas – 31 December 2024
- Anti‑War Coalition Ignores Putin’s War on Ukraine, by Fred Leplat and Liz Lawrence – 28 June 2026
- The DSA’s Cuba Problem, by Michael Deibert – 10 December 2025
- It Was Fascism All Along, by Silvaria Lysandra Zemaitis – 6 April 2026